Dear family,
My flight was pretty good, but honestly, I had no idea how long it was or whatever. We left at about 7:30 Atlanta time, and arrived at 8:30 São Paulo time. São Paulo is actually 5 hours ahead of California time, which I did not realize. During the flight, I only got 1 hour of sleep, maybe two. It was not good.
But, we arrived safe in São Paulo. I didn't get to see much of the city. Anyway, it was kind of a jungle in the airport, there were lots of Brazilians everywhere. There were lots of American missionaries with us on the flight, but pretty quickly we all split up to go to our separate missions, and it was just Barkdull, Trevisanut and me.
We went to our gate, which was really just a bus stop, where a bus would take us to our airplane. While we were waiting there, we saw some familiar missionaries: Elders Hobbs, Reeves, and Sister Horkley! It was really cool to see them again, I think they had a really good time in the São Paulo CTM.
Anyway, we got on the plane and flew down to Curitiba. This flight I got to sleep another half hour. Hurray. We arrived at the Airport, and we got to meet President Cordon and Sister Cordon! It was sweet! We all went down to their house to have Dinner (a typical Brazilian Dish: Beans, Rice, and some meat. Delicious!) then, immediately after that, we met at a nearby chapel, where we had a meeting to somewhat orient us to the field, and give us Credit cards. Que legal, I have money now. Also, we got to meet our new Companions! My companion is Elder Brino. At first, I thought he American, because he´s tall and white. In fact, when President Cordon introduced me to Elder Brino, Cordon said ´this is Elder Brino, from Texas´. But, in reality, he´s a straight up Brazillian from São Paulo, which is legit! He speaks a very small amount of English, so we have to mostly speak in Portuguese. Sweet!
So, after we met our New Companions, President Cordon told each of us where we were serving, and immediately afterwards, Elder Brino and I went and made use of the famous Curitiba Bus system, headed for my Area: Bairro Novo, which is a part of the city of Curitiba.
We got out of the Bus after about an hour, and walked to our apartment. The first thing Elder Brion said as we approached our apartment was: Não fica muito feliz which means Don´t get too (very) happy, and I could see why, because our apartment is quite small, and on the way, theres this little dog that barks a lot (no bite though, yet). It´s essentially a bedroom, a small kitchen, and another room to do study and planning. But, whatever, its all we need! I dropped off my stuff, grabbed a Livro de Mórmon, and at 6:30 PM Curitiba time, we went off to do some teaching appointments. Along the way, Elder Brino got me to do some contacts, which just means that I talk to everyone I meet on the street. Man, it is hard to understand what these people are saying! Elder Brino is a bit better, but I for the most part am too slow with understanding what they´re saying, so after I did the initial contact, Brino would take over. Haha, pois é. At about 7 PM, we got to his teaching appointment, which was in this man´s store where he sells clothing. we taught the second half of the Plan of Salvation, with me teaching the part about physical death, Spirit world, and the Resurrection. I think that our investigator understood. And then, Brino finished off the with the rest of the lesson, and got the man to come to church Sunday.
After that, we did some more contacting, and then we went to another appointment which was with these three young boys that Brino baptized last week. Their situation is a bit difficult, because their parents want to go to church, I think, but they refuse to go to church because their three boys are always fighting with one another and being unruly, and so the parents feel that it would be embarrassing going to church with them. So, when we got there, it was just the three boys, so Brino and I spoke to them a bit. Then, Brino asked me to teach them about Obedience real quick. I wasn´t prepared (whereas with the Plan of salvation, we went over it before the lesson) but I went ahead and taught it, and I think they understood. They did make fun of me though, because I talk funny. Lol, I should get used to it. Brino finished the lesson by telling the Boys that now that they were baptized they had to choose the right, and that they couldn't keep acting like they do.
After this lesson, we did some more contacting, and then went home, had daily planning (where we planned out our P-day, how fun!) and I finally got ready for bed, which for me, was mostly just cleaning up the mess I left when I dropped off all of my stuff. I went to bed at 10:30, and that was the end of my loooong day. It was very hard, especially trying to listen to the people speak, because I hadn´t really slept in more than 36 hours. I woke up at 6:15 on the 21st and I fell asleep at 10:30 on the 22nd. So, I was quite sleepy (still am). But, being in a new country helped, and also actually doing the contacts and the teaching helped out a ton too.
It´s so crazy I´m in Brazil! This place is nuts! It´s definitely not America, although it is pretty nice. Everyone speaks Portuguese, and it is hard to understand. A couple of times already, I was just thinking ´What am I doing here! I must be crazy!´ lol, but tudo bem, i´ll get used to it! It´s tons of fun!
Ok, i gotta go! Love you guys a ton! I´ll write again soon!
Love,
Elder Twitchell
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